Hours after the NRA, President Donald Trump and other conservatives touted the right to bear arms and decried calls for gun control, marketer after marketer abandoned support of the NRA. This and public outrage in the wake of the Florida school shooting, swayed brands away from the organization. #BoycottNRA was a top trending topic on Twitter on Friday.

Thank you @Hertz. I was going to tell you that I was cancelling my Gold membership if you didn’t sever your your ties with the NRA #BoycottNRA

Sixty-six percent of consumers want brands to take a stand on issues like gun control, Sprout Social found.

Sprout Social tells Target Marketing on Friday:

The power of social influence is real. More than ever, consumers are using their buying power to put their money where their values are and threaten their loyalty to brands that don't align with them.

First National Bank started the trend by severing ties with the NRA as a result of "customer feedback" found on social.

Customer feedback has caused us to review our relationship with the NRA. As a result, First National Bank of Omaha will not renew its contract with the National Rifle Association to issue the NRA Visa Card.

Brands altering their policies in light of public feedback is backed by recent history, including Uber ousting its leader after a former employee revealed a sexist culture; United Airlines briefly ending its overbooking policy after a passenger is dragged off of one of its planes; and McDonald’s rethinking its Szechuan sauce promotion for “Rick and Morty” fans after riots break out.

Offer an apology AND a solution: The ‘We Hear You and Value Our Customers. We Will Make This Right Immediately!’ approach This is your opportunity to turn a disgruntled customer into your brand’s evangelist! This person (or people) obviously had some sense of loyalty to your brand if they’ve spent their money with you, “liked” your Facebook fan page, and/or followed you on Twitter. Now, however, they’ve had an unpleasant experience and usually they just want to know that they’ve been listened to and that you (the people behind the brand) will make things right.

What do you think, marketers? In a previous article, Target Marketing found gun sales spiked after mass shootings and brands generally stayed silent. What changed?

IMO it’s important to ‘put your money where your values are’ now that the internet provides access to detailed info about companies. In the past, consumers bought products they wanted and thereby (inadvertently) supported companies with no idea what they stood for – that is, until they used their massive wealth to finance causes, PACs, legislation (lobbyists) etc. that was contrary to our personal beliefs. We now have a voice, and few things speak louder than a good wallop to the wallet when waging a fight against brands with so much wealth and power.

Tony The Pitiful Copywriter

The mainstream media, always interested in “fair” and “balanced” coverage, did much to normalize gun lust in the past. Are they tired of it now? Do they realize attempts at balanced coverage no longer matter when conservatives label all reports as “fake news”? A good example of the shift in coverage from gun rights to gun victims is The Atlantic’s explicit descriptions of exit wounds from an AR-15 compared to a 9mm handgun. Or when other outlets describe the thousands of dollars it costs to rehab gun victims. Stories like this make it harder to hide behind vague ideological positions like protecting the ownership of military weapons. Companies are people too, we’ve been told, and I applaud firms who are disgusted by the NRA’s two-faced, tone-deaf response to these tragedies. Let’s not forget, the NRA is a business, too.

To be more accurate ( I don’t care to comment on either side of the gun control issue here ), these brands have benefited by their relationship with NRA more than NRA may have benefited by the brands.

The relationships you are using as examples are member benefits most often solicited to the association rather than the other way around. I doubt very much that most NRA members join for the benefits.

It’s an irony and seems somewhat disingenuous to me when companies seek to offer benefits through an association and then promote / tweet that they are disassociating at times like this.

Tina Kilby

Agreed.. the corporations actions will not have much effect at all on the
NRA as they are 99% funded by members and the industry itself. Those corporations gave measly discounts in order to attract members not to give members or the NRA a bonus

JH Mckinnon

The NRA seems to have taken a lot of money from Russia too. McClatchy reported that the FBI was investigating whether Russia had used the NRA to funnel funds to Donald Trump’s campaign. The NRA refused to answer Sen. Ron Wyden’s questions about whether Russian funds were used for election meddling to help Trump.

Tina Kilby

Now that is funny….

Vilma Betancourt

The Russians donated millions to the Clinton Foundation. Hillary sold them US Uranium, Billy was paid handsomely for speeches by Russians. It was Hillary who had the Russian reset button. Mueller hasn’t found #TrumpRussiaCollusion so now it’s #NRARussiaCollusion? That’s hilarious!

mikgarus

Toxic now to defend a constitutional right?

Tony The Pitiful Copywriter

Other constitional rights have limits and common-sense applications. Why is the 2nd exempt from such considerations? Especially when the consequences kill our kids at school?

Vilma Betancourt

Sick White males are killing our kids. Should all White males be blamed for the behavior of these toxic, sick bastards? Yes, let’s eradicate all White males. Issue resolved. The NRA is not the problem, the White men pulling the trigger are obviously the real threat. They’ve played too many violent video games and have become desensitized. Let’s also ban all violent video games. Oh wait, that’s a huge, wealthy, powerful industry controlled by… White men.

Brands are seeing their online and offline reputation being damaged by association with the NRA now via tweets and posts–something that is never good these days. So, they can quickly pivot and drop their connection. Now, without being a cynic, brands are hardly benevolent seekers of good and love, but it becomes a way to been seen in a positive light to their main consumers (of course there are exceptions, but very generally speaking, Hertz probably has more urban users of their services rather can rural, which are most likely not NRA members).

Tina Kilby

But Chubb broke away from their relationship with the NRA months before the shooting and both Trump administration and the NRA are discussing gun control measures?

Tony The Pitiful Copywriter

I think people now, after dozens of these deadly incidents, are seeing a pattern of all talk and no action. If you look up the word “decried” you’ll see it’s a veiled form of contempt. People are tired of seeing their kids get shot dead. Was it like that when you were a kid in school? Is this fair to today’s youngsters?

Tina Kilby

What does your reply have to do with the article stating the opposite of what is actually happening – Trump is discussing changes to gun regs as are the NRA and the NRA also has been pushing for years for law enforcement to enforce the ones already on the books

Tony The Pitiful Copywriter

He was changing his tune away from regulations in this morning’s newsfeed. I guess he had a change of heart?

Tony The Pitiful Copywriter

To fit your analogy, who’s the main competitor to the NRA? Who’s the other pro-gun organization?

Tina Kilby

Interesting comparison may be that legally these huge corps can choose not to work with a company if they disagree with said companies views, but a small local bakery cannot do the same..hmmm

Tony The Pitiful Copywriter

The small local bakery was turning away gay customers who walked into the store based on religious prejudice. You know how businesses can change their alliances with other businesses, right? No laws against that.

Tina Kilby

Why should a “religious” view be treated any differently than any other view……and yes I realize they can change alliances but I don’t consider giving discounts to attract members an “alliance” with the NRA

JH Mckinnon

My company has decided to never use FedEx again, because of their support of the NRA. As a Canadian, with many American relatives and friends, I can say with a caring perspective that US gun laws are insane. It’s the only Western country in the world where people are slaughtered on a daily basis because of ridiculous gun laws pushed by gun manufacturers. Australia had a mass murder a number of years ago, and brought in strict gun laws, which ended the killing of innocents. It’s past time for a change in the US. And frankly, boycotts can make a difference.

Vilma Betancourt

Exactly which US gun laws are insane? Federal? State? Australia’s women are being raped and murdered by foreigners and can’t protect themselves. If they had access to guns, they could blow away these cowards. The problem in the US school shootings are caused by sick White males. Let’s send these sick bastards to Canada, where I am sure you will be happy to take care of them. Should we blame all White males for the deadly shootings in schools? They’re the ones pulling the trigger, not the NRA. The guns don’t pull their own trigger, right? White males are causing the problem.

Vilma Betancourt

I just joined the NRA after reading ignorant rants like yours. It was time for me to support an organization that protects my rights to defend myself and my family. NRA is not about protecting gun manufacturers, it’s about protecting my rights and about educating the public. You should do some research on policies that the NRA supports rather than regurgitate fake news. #NRA4Life

HappyJohn9

This article is biased from the start, so has little honesty. Where are all the boycotts of the police department, mayor’s office, and FBI?

Tina Kilby

UH wrong again . “Despite the fact that the Obama administration approved the sale of
bump fire stocks on at least two occasions, the National Rifle
Association is calling on the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and
Explosives (BATFE) to immediately review whether these devices comply
with federal law. The NRA believes that devices designed to allow
semi-automatic rifles to function like fully-automatic rifles should be
subject to additional regulations. In an increasingly dangerous world,
the NRA remains focused on our mission: strengthening Americans’ Second
Amendment freedom to defend themselves, their families and their
communities. To that end, on behalf of our five million members across
the country, we urge Congress to pass National Right-to-Carry
reciprocity, which will allow law-abiding Americans to defend themselves
and their families from acts of violence.”